Redesign, Rebuild, Reclaim
by wencho17
Summary: When Sasha Banks returned, three months after sustaining her back injury at Summerslam, she expected the road back to the top would be a lot easier than it was proving to be. Mired in losses, the Boss realizes that she's not the only one struggling to recapture her place at the top of the company and perhaps it might be easier to redesign, rebuild and reclaim their titles together.


**A/N: So, I was sort of challenged to write this fic and this pairing and this is what I've come up with. Not sure where it's going to go since it dawned on me I've never really written a WWE romantic pairing story before and because I've got like four other stories I feel like I should be working on first, but yeah, here's chapter one. So I hope you all like it and I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **As always, enjoy!**

August 21, 2016.

To Sasha Banks, that day felt like it had been a year ago when in actuality, it had only been a few months, three to be exact, give or take a few days. That had been the last time Sasha had been in the ring before she injured her back.

Entering the arena that night for Summerslam, Sasha couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. This was her first time headlining the huge event as WWE Women's Champion and she couldn't have been more ecstatic. But as Sasha quickly and painfully found out, a lot can change in just a few hours.

The night couldn't have ended worse as not only had she lost her title to Charlotte, but she had suffered a pretty bad sprain to her back in the process. She had guessed it happened about mid-way through the match when Charlotte had her on the second ropes and basically power bombed her 15 feet from the ground. That was when Sasha first felt the tightness and of course like Charlotte would, she did as well and used that as an opportunity to target Sasha's back for the rest of the match. As best she could Sasha fought through it because she had no intention of quitting and giving Charlotte the title that easily. But as the match went on the pain got worse. By the time Charlotte forced her into the Figure Eight, connecting with the bridge and putting all of the pressure on her bent back and spine, Sasha had no choice but to tap out.

Following the match, Sasha's disappointment at losing the title in her first ever defense, paled in comparison to the news the doctors gave her. No, the injury wouldn't require surgery, but it still meant she would be out of action for anywhere from three to six months. According to the doctors, she had been lucky that when Charlotte slammed her hard against the ropes during one of the relentless assaults on her back, that she had landed not one-quarter of an inch differently because apparently that would have been a lot more dangerous to her health.

But of course, saying she was lucky was a relative term. Sasha didn't feel lucky. She felt like thanks to Charlotte, she was missing months of her career. And it couldn't have come at a worse time given she had finally risen to the top of the mountain where she knew she always belonged. Getting there had taken over a year and now, she was going to have to do again.

Sasha didn't allow the news to deter her though as she promised herself she would come back stronger than ever to reclaim her gold. She worked her ass off every single day doing as much as she could to make the recovery time as short as possible. It took over two grueling months but she had finally gotten the all-clear and was ready to get back in the ring. Things couldn't have happened at a better time either as the show marking her return was being held in TD Bank Garden in her home city of Boston.

Just like she was the night of Summerslam, Sasha walked into the "other" Garden as it was sometimes referred to, with nothing but a smile on her face and confidence in her step. She felt great, 100 percent. Well, 80 percent, but she hadn't experienced any pain in her back in over a week, so Sasha knew she was ready for her first match back.

And when Sasha saw who her opponent was, she couldn't help but smile even brighter. Short of getting her hands on Charlotte, this would be the next best thing. At least, it would have been if during the match her back hadn't just decided to twinge before giving out entirely.

Everything had been fine. She was controlling the pace, being the aggressor and feeling like she was exactly where she had been three months ago when she was on top of the wrestling world. In fact, it was almost too good to be true, too easy, that she was picking up where she left off with almost no ring rust. Almost.

But then she got slammed into the steel steps hard, her back crashing against the metal. Sasha felt it, she heard it and for the rest of the match, she dealt with the tingling pain every time she found herself in anything other than a straight-up position. Just like at Summerslam though she was determined to fight through the pain. However, also like at Summerslam, her body had other ideas.

Sasha was in position for the Banks Statement but a sharp pain forced her to pull back. She needed a second to regroup, but that's all it took for her to get caught in a cradle roll-up for the 1-2-3.

The crowd was in just as much disbelief as she was when the ring announcer held up the other woman's arm and announced, "And your winner, by pinfall, Dana Brooke!"

It honestly made Sasha sick to her stomach.

Dana Brooke had beaten her. Dana Brooke…

Of all the women in the locker room, of all the people in the world, in her first night back, in her hometown, with the crowd chanting her name, she had to get pinned by Dana freakin' Brooke.

This had to be nightmare that she was going to wake up from any minute. Because there was no other logical explanation. Sure Sasha had been less than 100 percent but this was Dana Brooke. Even if she had been at 50 percent, she still should have taken care of her. There was no excuse to losing that match ever.

After fighting off the medics that insisted on checking on her as soon as she made her way back through that curtain, Sasha tore through the hallway, ignoring anyone and everyone. She was not in the mood for people who hated her guts to welcome her back with a false smile. She didn't want to make idle conversation, not even with friends, who would no doubt tell her that despite losing it was only her first match back and that she did a great job.

No, after what had happened, after her first night back had been ruined and she had embarrassed herself in front of her hometown, family and friends, all Sasha wanted was to be left alone. Unfortunately for her however, someone else had other plans.

"You know it's rude to ignore people," the voice came from what sounded like a bit of a distance. But it was still a voice she would know anywhere, Seth Rollins. That's why, despite his proclamations, she decided to continue to ignore him and anybody else who might decide to talk to her on the way back to her locker room.

The injured back slowed her down though and it was just enough to allow Seth to jog up to where she was, that signature smirk on his stupid face. Realizing this was a losing battle, Sasha stopped dead in her tracks and faced him for the first time.

"What do you want Rollins?" she questioned sharply.

"Hello to you too," Seth replied, only seeming to anger Sasha further.

"Do you know who I am?" Sasha asked with her finger pointed against his chest. "I'm the Boss and if you are even a little smart you'd know that messing with the Boss is only going to end badly for you. Now if you'll excuse me, we've arrived the women's locker room so this is your que to turn around and leave me the hell alone!"

"Quite feisty kitten," Seth said just as Sasha had opened the door to the locker room.

"What did you just call me?" she fired back.

Seth just smiled. "You heard me."

If looks could kill, Seth would have been buried in the ground right now.

Sasha had barely known the guy since coming up to the main roster but from what she did know he was arrogant and smug, traits that she was excused of possessing herself. And she knew that. She also knew that if Seth Rollins had been initiating a conversation with her, the first mind you in their history, at any other time, she probably would have indulged the man and his flirting and maybe even flirted back a little.

But tonight was not the night and the fact that he couldn't get it through his thick skull to see that, just made Sasha want to scream. It also had to make her wonder why he was being so determined to talk to her given they weren't friends and their previous interactions had never been anything more than the exchange of pleasantries in the hallway. Something about all of this seemed off but she honestly didn't care enough to wait around and find out what exactly the man's agenda was.

"See you later Rollins," she said before quickly closing the door behind her.

Sasha took a deep breath as she walked into the locker room, happy to find none of the other female superstars were in there. But that happiness was short-lived as she got the feeling something wasn't right. Walking back over to the door after a few minutes, she was correct, as Seth was still standing outside.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me," she said exasperated. "Really Seth, really? You're just waiting out here for me?"

"If that's what it takes for you to give me a minute," he responded.

"30 seconds," Sasha replied as she stood in the doorway. "29, 28, 27," she began to count.

"I saw your match," Seth began. "And being somebody who knows what it's like to come back from a major injury, you just looked a little, well less than 100 percent. Just my unsolicited opinion of course."

Sasha just glared at him. "Just your opinion huh? Well Seth, you can take that opinion and shove it. You and I, we're not the same and our situations aren't the same."

"They're more similar than they are different," Seth replied simply.

Sasha rolled her eyes. She was in less than no mood to deal with him now.

"Okay, you want to give an opinion, how about I give you my unsolicited opinion? How's that sound?" Sasha commented.

"Go for it," Seth replied.

"My opinion is that you were gone nine months because you couldn't land one of your own damn moves, something you've done at least 100 times right," Sasha began the verbal assault. "My opinion is that when you came back you were determined to win the title and you did, only to lose it in the process of becoming a footnote in a statistic. Two minutes was it? In my opinion, that reign pretty much sucked. It's also just my opinion that you couldn't beat Finn at Summerslam and you couldn't beat Kevin Owens at Clash of Champions. And in my opinion, all of these opinions aren't opinions at all, they are facts. Because the fact of the matter Seth is maybe you came back less than 100 percent and maybe you're not as good as you were, but that doesn't mean I'm not. So the fact of the matter is, I've been back a day and I'm closer to getting my championship back than you are. But of course, that is all just my unsolicited opinion…"

Never one to shy away from a fight, Seth was actually pretty taken aback by Sasha's response. It definitely confirmed his earlier thought about her being feisty but he noticed something else too. It was like she was projecting. To be fair he had kind of done that first but her reaction to his comments were a little more derogatory than he was expecting.

If anything, that just served to accomplish one thing and that was simply that Seth was right and that even if Sasha would never admit it to him, he knew that much was true. He was right about her coming back too soon, right about her being less than 100 percent, and projecting for a minute, right about her own fears that maybe just maybe she wasn't going to be as good as she was before. Fears that mirrored ones of his own that had been brought to the surface the second Dean Ambrose cashed in that briefcase, only to be magnified when Triple H decided he was to be replaced.

Seth couldn't know for certain if Sasha felt the same way but he was clued in a little on her personality before he cornered her in the hallway. And so far, everything he had been told was holding true to form.

"You're right," he responded, knowing this would catch Sasha off guard and it did. "Everything you said about my coming back and being back for almost six months and I can't seem to get back to where I was. Trying so hard only to come up short again and again and again. You're not wrong. So I'm not going to stand here and tell you that you are when we both know that would be a lie. But Sasha here's the thing and you can believe me or not, but you only said those things because you can't help thinking about them in relation to yourself. You're wondering if you're ever going to be as good or if losing tonight was more than just a fluke. I get it. But see you missed three months, I missed nine. Nobody passed you by while you were gone. The same can't be said for me. And yeah the knee's all healed up but that's why I'm here. I saw the match. Dana went right after your back just like Owens attacked my knee at Clash of Champions. It's always gonna be like that. The second you have an injury, it becomes a target and healed up or not, you're always going to have to work that much harder because your opponent, they'll see it as a weakness and they'll go after it every time."

Sasha wasn't really sure what to say other than, to herself, that she hated how incredibly right Seth was.

Yes, he had been the one to project his feelings about his own injury and career onto her, but that didn't mean she hadn't already been thinking those thoughts herself. It was just, Dana Brooke. If it had been anybody else she probably would have just shaken it off and moved on. But losing to Dana, it was as if all of the confidence, all of the bravado she walked into TD Bank Garden that night with had just vanished.

Sure, not every injury story was grim but for every HBK, there were 10 others who came back mere shells of themselves, losing all momentum and eventually crashing and burning. Sasha would have been lying to herself if she said that in the back of her mind she wasn't at least considering that she could end up one of them. Of course, she remained optimistic that her back would heal like Michaels' did and that she would return to have the kind of second career run he did, but losing to Dana thanks to the less than cooperative back certainly cast that shadow of doubt.

Maybe Seth had been right, maybe she did come back too soon. But as soon as the doctors said minimum of three months to recover, she only had her eyes set on that mark. She didn't wait a second longer even if it turned out that she should have. Not being 100 percent was something she couldn't even consider though because every day that went by she wanted to get back in that ring more and more.

Sasha could imagine that was how every one of the superstars felt, especially Seth.

"You don't know a damn thing," she finally replied, opting not to tell him the words she was sure he wanted to hear.

But Seth wasn't an idiot and he could see it in her face as much as hear it in her voice. He could tell Sasha was being less than truthful with him.

"Maybe I don't but like I said, this isn't new to me," Seth said. "So take the advice or not but from someone who's been where you are, I know how this works. You go out to that ring like everything is the same as it was. But you know it and everybody else knows it, that you're at a disadvantage. And not just physically, nah that's probably the easiest to overcome. I'm talking mentally and psychologically. Because you start out firing on all cylinders like tonight, thinking you're on top of the world. But then one miscalculation, one second of not paying attention, and your opponent finds that weakness and exploits it. Maybe they push you into the steel steps or maybe they wrap your knee up in the ropes. Either way, your body was already doing its best to ignore the weakness but now it's working overtime and sometimes no matter how much you fight it, that's going to be a losing battle."

"It puts you back at square one when you feel that pop, when you hear it. That's probably the worst part because that shit gets in your head and that's worse than any kind of physical pain," Seth continued after a short pause to allow Sasha to digest the information. "You've got to fight off the voices telling you that you're not there yet and trust me when I say, after you've gone out there, after you feel like you're finally starting to reclaim a part of your life that you lost, the last thing you want to think about is that there's a chance you're not ready after all. Sasha, we're not friends and I don't know you all that well but I know the kind of competitor you are and that's why I know where your mind is at after tonight. But it's one match. Don't let one match be the deciding factor. Brush yourself off and go out there next week and win, just win. Because after months of waiting, of watching, of counting down the damn days, there is no such thing as coming back too soon. Hell, the day after the injury wasn't even too soon. That's how much you need this, how much you want to be back. You can stop me anytime kitten and tell me I'm way off base."

Sasha was speechless. It was almost like Seth was inside of her head. But she couldn't let him know that. In fact, for a reason she couldn't quite understand, she didn't want him to know that. Here he was this basic stranger to her who she couldn't wait to get rid of now becoming this guy who she didn't want him to see her as a weak. How quickly things had changed.

Sasha chalked it up to the semi-shared experience. He had been there as he said and while he was the standing example of what she was afraid of, coming back from injury and never quite being able to get back to the pinnacle, his advice did have merit.

And he had a point. She had to fight through this. She had to get past this one loss as completely aggravating as it was. She couldn't let it define what would come next.

But, she couldn't let Seth know that he had actually seemed to help her in some small way.

"Thanks," she just mumbled softly. "But I think I know what I'm doing."

Seth couldn't help but smile. Yep, the description of her was accurate to a fault.

"I'm sure you do," he said before finally leaving the hallway and finally giving the peace she had wanted since the second the bell rang.

The only thing was now that he was gone, Sasha wasn't so sure she wanted to be alone at all.


End file.
